"We warm up both body and soul"
Renovated houses and nearby ruins after shelling. Freshly painted monuments and mine-prone areas. A minibus three times a day and attacking Ukrainian UAVs. Avdiivka is recovering, but it is too early to talk about the return of a full-fledged peaceful life. The main reasons for this are the enormous destruction (up to 90%) and the proximity of the front line — about 20 km. The settlement itself remains closed — entry inside is only with a local residence permit. The story of how the city rises from the ashes, no matter what, is in a report by a special correspondent of Izvestia.
Plus 100 people
We enter Avdiivka through winding, broken roads through the very "washout" where Ukrainian militants have settled since 2014. The first thing we hear with the driver as we cross the city line is a loud bang. A black pillar grows immediately behind the trees, probably as a result of the arrival of a drone. As representatives of the administration explained to me in advance, it is rare for a day to go without a visit from enemy UAVs. But in general, it became calmer. Suddenly, unexpected massive raids happen, like a few weeks ago, when Avdiivka was attacked by 20-25 kamikazes at the same time, and then a civilian car came under fire. But this is an exception. The number of strikes has decreased significantly, presumably because the Ukrainian Armed Forces are choosing higher-priority targets on the line of contact as a result of the withdrawal.
The role of the administration, as it was a year ago, is performed by the premises of one of the former shops, densely lined with sandbags — there are authorities, humanitarian aid, and any questions answered. Marina Aseeva, Yasinovataya's representative, is in charge of civil affairs. The last time we saw each other was in the summer of 2024, so she gives a brief introduction.
— The number of residents today is almost 700 people, one hundred more than last year (in 2023, the population of Avdiivka numbered 1.6 thousand people, until 2014 - 32 thousand — Ed.). Including nine children," the woman says. — Almost everyone got their passports. 483 people have received a pension. The closure of Ukrainian workbooks is underway. 170 people are employed, 80 of them work in Avdiivka, the rest mainly in Yasinovataya.
The building of the future administration and multifunctional center
According to Marina Aseeva, the territorial department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs operates in the city, a pharmacy receives customers three times a week, a paramedic team arrives from Donetsk twice, and representatives of one of the banks once a week. 15 retail outlets are open. Every seven days, each resident is given a loaf of bread for free, and 36 liters of drinking water once a month. There is no centralized power supply, but 49 private houses are powered by an industrial Electric Grid generator. 54 individual residential buildings have been renovated. Multi-family residential buildings are being restored.
Help from the chefs
My guide through the city is Pavel, a local activist. He has 25 years of underground work experience: he worked as an electrician in a mine. Twice he witnessed accidents — methane explosions, where his comrades died. In 2014, like other countrymen, he had to learn how to survive in new conditions - to stock up on water, save food, have solar panels, not wait for manna from heaven (that someone will come and solve your problems), to lend a shoulder to your neighbor. There is no basement in his four-story building, I had to hide between the floors for all the years, and after the start of a special military operation, I hung the front door on its hinges five times. He was removing bodies from the rubble. I was burying a friend.
Local activist Pavel against the background of a restored house
In February 2024, after the Russian troops entered Avdiivka, he spent three months with other guys clearing shops for administrative offices and helping distribute humanitarian aid. He continues to work in a volunteer team even now.
The house he lives in is in disrepair, with cracks, broken windows and collapsed balconies. There are four residents in the entire four-storey building. Rita, a fellow activist, lives on the ground floor. Today she was just handing out bread, and during the break she ran into her room to feed the cat. Rita has a plywood panel instead of an entrance door. There's a woodcutter in the abandoned apartment next door. There's a stove in the kitchen with a chimney through the window. A red—haired cat meows immediately, to which she crumbles cucumbers into a bowl - the tailed one immediately begins to crunch with appetite. Rita gave 32 years to the Avdiivka coke plant, and now she works part-time as a cleaner at two retail outlets.
Rita, an activist, has worked at a coke plant for 32 years.
But the neighboring house has been restored. Plastic Windows, painted walls, fresh railings. The apartments have linoleum, plumbing, boilers, electric stoves, refrigerators, furniture, mattresses, everything is free. Water comes from a well, electricity from a generator in the yard. The same house is being prepared for commissioning nearby — both facilities are being repaired by the Chelyabinsk region. And nearby apartment buildings are being restored by another chef region, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.
From basements to apartments
The new settlers of the renovated houses are victims of the fire. They were given temporary housing. Given the current difficult realities, no deadlines have been set: live!
In one of the apartments, Anatoly and Svetlana open the door for me. He is a metallurgist with more than 40 years of experience, she is a former nurse. They spent two years — the 22nd and the 23rd — in the basement. Last year, a shell landed there, and a fire started. We got out. We spent the night on a bench for several days, covered with blankets. We bumped into each other somewhere. And last December, they were given the keys to a two-room apartment. The New Year was celebrated in warmth, with water, with electric light. "We are still warming up both body and soul," says Svetlana.
The new settlers Anatoly and Svetlana lived in the basement for two years.
Together with Pavel, we visit several other sites. On the outskirts, the church of Mary Magdalene is being repaired — the small dome on the belfry is being covered with gold leaf. Nearby is a tidied and painted memorial to the soldiers of the Great Patriotic War with a MiG aircraft soaring into the sky (after 2014, nationalists flooded this memorable place with paint). There is also a bell installed in honor of the current heroes. There is a sheathed box for the future administration on the construction site closer to the center. An MFC, a pension fund, a bank, and a registry office will be located here under one roof. You won't have to go to Donetsk. The building is expected to open soon.
In the afternoon, on Gagarin Street, among the soldiers hurrying in different directions, I notice a group of elderly women — they are waiting for the minibus, the only communication channel with the "mainland" so far. The cost to Donetsk is 60 rubles, and the journey time is almost two hours (you have to take a roundabout route). One resident goes to work — she got a job as a concierge in a high-rise building in the republican capital. The other is for the student-grandson. The third is to go to the pharmacy in Yasinovataya: not all drugs are available at the local point. The fourth one wants to get to the market in time.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that both civilians and military personnel are very similar and seem to merge into one whole on these streets. Because of the forced neighborhood, everyone has been friends with each other for a long time. Everyone has a work or field uniform. And there is indelible fatigue and concern on their faces — unfortunately, there is no opportunity for either of them to calmly exhale and rest.
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